September 5: Best behavior

While I remain opposed to the removal of the residents of Migron, ), I am relieved that it was carried out in a respectful manner.

By JERUSALEM POST READERS

September 4, 2012 22:32

Letters 521.
(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)

Best behavior Sir, – While I remain opposed to the removal of the residents of
Migron (“Border Police peacefully remove Migron families,” September 3), I am
relieved that it was carried out in a respectful, largely peaceful and orderly
manner.

It is important for those of us who live in the disputed
territories to remember that the Israel Police and Border Police are our
brothers and sisters and that they are acting under orders from the political
and legal echelons. It is also important for us to keep in mind that both the
Israeli public and government are still deeply divided over the future of these
areas, and that we should rely on peaceful and rational persuasion to make our
points, not confrontation and violence.

Our love for the Land of Israel
should never take precedence over love for our fellow Jews, even when we choose
to disagree.

KENNETH BESIG Kiryat Arba

Shut up alreadySir, – With no
desire to pass judgement on whether Israel should or should not strike Iran
(“Winograd: Striking Iran may endanger Israel’s future,” September 3), it seems
to me that an equally valid headline would have been, “Not striking Iran may
endanger Israel’s future.”

No one knows what the best action is for
Israel, although the more I hear our “friends” and various “experts” telling us
not to strike, that they will protect us, the more worried I get.

I do
think, though, that until someone has some accurate inside information and not
speculation about what Iran is up to, we should all shut up.

C. HENRYKfar Bialik

Not yet rehabilitatedSir, – I was surprised that you reported the
insane ramblings of Hagai Amir in so much detail (“Hagai Amir: No regrets for
what I did,” September 3). He is, after all, an unrepentant accomplice to his
brother’s despicable act of the murder of a prime minister of
Israel.

Disagreeing with Yitzhak Rabin’s policies vis a vis the Oslo
Accords does not give anyone the right to describe his assassination as a
mitzva. To take a life, any life, is murder.

One wonders: If Amir has not
been rehabilitated, how can he be released back into society? MICHAEL GROSS
Jerusalem More alternatives Sir, – There are many justifiable reasons for
raising the price of gasoline besides the obvious danger of air pollution (“Pump
tax,” Editorial, September 3).

On the flip side, though, we don’t have
enough inexpensive transportation alternatives, such as bicycle lanes or light
railways, in the Dan area. Cities like Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa should be
inundated with Segways and electric bicycles. The government should have a
program in place so that by the year 2020 all cars are electric and all heavy
vehicles are powered by natural gas.

The gasoline combustion engine has
run its course and it is time to bury it.

MATTIAS ROTENBERG Petah Tikva

In his ‘kishkes’Sir, – Jeff Barak opens “Romney’s allegations” (Reality Check,
September 3) by indicating that Mitt Romney has redefined chutzpah, given the US
Republican presidential nominee’s assertion that President Barack Obama “has
thrown allies like Israel under the bus.” However, another common Yiddish term,
kishkes, seems to have been excluded from Barak’s considerations.

He
chides former presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. It is widely
thought that, alongside former president Bill Clinton, they had a visceral
feeling for Israel, one in their kishkes, their gut. Israel and its advocates
cannot expect every US president to be supportive of all its policies and
positions, but the kishkes test is an important evaluation
tool.

President Obama’s support for Israel in the UN is the result of
political expediency. His support for Israeli defense systems is supportive of
Pentagon policies and priorities. His intervention in Cairo, when Israel’s
embassy was under attack from the street, was clearly in America’s interest as
the US Embassy probably would have been next.

All of these actions must
be appreciated, but they do not pass the kishkes test.

Romney has
demonstrated in his policy statements and during his visit to Jerusalem in July
a real sense that he feels Israel and its people in his kishkes.

HOWARD
WEISBANDJerusalem

Sir, – Now that we know it’s going to be Romney vs. Obama and
they’ve picked their running mates, why shouldn’t the US do away with national
conventions altogether? The money saved could be used to keep programs like
Medicare, Social Security, veteran’s benefits and education going. Makes sense
to me! HERB STARKMassapequa, New York

Cuff the copsSir, – Your report “Three
haredim arrested for throwing rocks at Arabs in Shuafat” (September 2) also
mentions an incident on Hanevi’im Street in Jerusalem on Shabbat afternoon in
which a group of haredim were protesting.

The police grabbed three 13-
year old haredi boys who were mere bystanders, arrested them, dragged them to a
car, put them in handcuffs, treated them roughly and kept them at a police
station for hours. Eventually, a haredi representative secured their release,
but the pain and trauma will not go away so easily.

Maybe the police
themselves should be put in handcuffs and locked up.

RAYMOND APPLE
Jerusalem

Dream worldSir, – Regarding “Preventing ‘Palestine’: Part 1 –
Essential preconditions” (Into the Fray, August 31), I keep wondering in which
dream world Martin Sherman lives. He espouses an idea over and over again that
is pure fantasy – that we will get the hefty Palestinian population of the West
Bank to be transferred to a morewelcoming state by offering them economic
incentives.

We continue to see clearly the upset and emotional outpouring
this involves. Even many years after Israelis were pulled out of Gaza, most of
them are still not able to settle down and amiably accept their new place of
abode.

How, then, could we rationally expect the hostile and unreceptive
Palestinians to even consider our offer of financial incentives? Is there any
price we could pay them that would suffice? Would not Arab oil money make our
offer look ridiculous, as the sheikhs could so easily outbid us just to keep the
tensions raging? We are all looking for answers to the horrible problem of
having a hate-filled minority in our midst, but we most certainly have to come
up with better ideas than what Sherman has to offer.

IDA PLAUT Netanya

Intellectual dishonestySir, – University presidents, those self-appointed
custodians of Israeli intellectual standards, have demonstrated blatant
intellectual dishonesty in their opposition to the university in Ariel
(“Bar-Ilan president refuses to oppose Ariel University,” August
28).

Many have openly and emphatically opposed the establishment of a
university across the so-called Green Line, and none of the others have
repudiated this. It is apparent that their complaint is not that Moshe Kaveh is
bowing to political pressure but that it’s the “wrong” political
position.

Claiming that the addition of another university would dilute
the resources available to existing institutions and lower Israel’s educational
standards is also hypocritical.

Carrying this hypothesis to its logical
conclusion, we should declassify some of the existing universities and
concentrate our funds for graduate education and research only on Hebrew
University and Tel Aviv University, the Technion and the Weizmann
Institute.

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